is it possible the economy is better than we think. ? >> anyone who has been looking at this for the past three to six months recognizes we're in a very stable, not particularly dramatic, not overly sexy but clearly not disastrous economy. that doesn't raise all sorts of celebratory bells but in a world where people's predisposition is to look for a crisis and assume the worse, consistent okay is a whole lot better. none of these numbers that we've been talking about this let's say five, ten years ago would have struck us as particularly robust. retail sales up half of a percent over the holiday for the month. good number. not an incredible number but a whole lot better than everyone saying oh, this is terrible. >> i think we have the inflation chart. let me put the cpi up. the cpi is falling if i'm not mistaken. for all the talk by the inflationistas of the federal reserve's monetary policy which i basically disagree take a look at that. inflation is one of our problems. quick question. one of the leaders of this market, banks. financia